


steeped in burning flowers

by Anonymous



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Crying, Cunnilingus, F/M, Grief, Incest, Penis In Vagina Sex, complicated feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-08
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-05-19 21:53:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14881898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Taako and Lup take a bit of a break, and talk about feelings. Title taken from *I Will Wade Out* by e.e.cummings.





	steeped in burning flowers

**Author's Note:**

> _I will rise_   
>  _After a thousand years_   
>  _lipping_   
>  _flowers_   
>  _And set my teeth in the silver of the moon_

“You ever miss the beach?”

“Mmm?”

Taako was sprawled out on the sand, his hands behind his head, almost all of him covered by the shadow, apart from the tips of his toes.

Lup was sprawled out in the sand, because fucked if she was going to miss even one second of the sun touching her skin.

Her _actual_ skin. 

She had skin now.

It was warm with the sun, and okay, maybe she was going to burn, but… fuck it. 

“The beach. Do you ever miss it?”

“We are literally on the beach, Lulu,” Taako said, and she watched the rise and fall of his chest, and the way the hair of his braid was rustled every time he breathed in and out. 

“No, I mean… you know. That beach.” 

She glanced at him, half blind from the brightnes, and her skin was pleasantly stiff from the salt of the ocean.

It had lapped at her like the most chaste of lover, covering every inch of her body, stroking like a thousand velvet fingertips.

She shivered, and was aware, acutely, of goosebumps going in waves across her skin, of her nipples getting hard, of a familiar tightening in her belly .

“I miss it sometimes,” Taako said. 

“I’ve… missed this,” she said. “This… being alive.”

“I figured you would,” said Taako. “Although do umbrellas depress you because they now remind you of the endless march of time and how you were outside it for so long?”

Lup rolled her eyes, and then she leaned over and punched him in the arm.

“You know what I like about the sun?”

“Ow! I’m delicate!”

“I know you’re delicate. I was going easy on you.”

He stuck his tongue out at her.

She smirked at him. 

“Is that a promise or a threat?”

“Why not both?”

“You didn’t ask what I like about the sun.”

“You like that the sun is basically one big explosion and it reminds you of fire magic,” Taako said, in a voice that could be interpreted as bored. 

“You must think I’m pretty shallow,” she said, and she stuck her foot out, poking him in the side with it. 

He grabbed her leg in his hand, and he ran his hand up it.

He must have felt how warm she was - almost hot from the sun, her skin still tacky from the dried sea water.

His long fingers wrapped around her ankle easily, and he squeezed it, and didn’t let go.

Sometimes she thought that he had missed her physical form more than she had.

Well… was that fair?

He hadn’t even realized that he was missing her - those great gaps in his memory, finally filled in, but confusing nonetheless. 

Sometimes, he looked at her with an expression that just broke her heart.

It was… searching, like there was something missing from her face that he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

She leaned in, and she kissed him on the mouth, because she didn’t know if she could bare him looking at her like that. 

He sighed, and his fingers were sliding into her hair, tugging on it gently, and he was moaning against her mouth.

She was… she was holding on to him, and she was gently probing at his mouth with her tongue, stroking along the seam of his lips, and then into his mouth, when he opened it a little further.

“Lulu,” he murmured, and she sighed against him.

In the sun, his hair caught the light, gaining highlights and new depths. 

He was… he was gorgeous.

Of course he was gorgeous.

He looked like her.

Well… almost like her.

The magic at the one place had taken away some of his beauty, and she could… she could see where the magic was anchored. 

They pulled apart, and Taako rested his forehead against hers, cupping her cheeks in his big hands. 

“I remember what the… what the air smelled like. At the beach. I’d forgotten it… but I’ve got it back… I think.” 

There was some kind of complicated longing on Taako's face - something that was painful, and something that woke up a longing in her own chest.

She kissed him again, her hands sliding to his back, tangling in his braid in her fist, tugging on it.

It forced his head back, and he moaned, clutching at her like he was going to drown.

Sometimes, she saw the grief that was crawling out of his eyes, and it was like he was drowning.

She held him to her, as some kind of buoy, and she kissed him like it was the end of the world.

They were beyond the end of the world by this point - they'd done that already.

Maybe that was part of why it was so confusing. 

The two of them had seen so many worlds end, so many worlds _die_.... and then, here they were. 

Together. 

And Lup had seen the way that Taako's hands had been shaking, and the slightly spacey way he had looked out into the distance, and she'd declared an official twin holiday, and, well... here they were.

On a deserted beach, miles from anyone. 

It had taken effort to find a beach like this, admittedly, but... well, here they were.

"We should go in the water," said Lup, pulling back.

"Aww," said Taako, and he tried to pull he closer, "I was having fun mackin' on you."

Lup snorted, and she cuddled in closer, until the both of them were half under the umbrella, half in the sun.

The shadow cooled her overheated skin.

He had his arm around her middle, his palm spread out and open over her side.

His hands were getting more knuckle-y as he got older - one of the only places he really showed his age.

He kissed her temple, and he nuzzled into her neck.

"You smell like the sun," he said.

"How would you know what the sun smells like?"

Taako made an annoyed noise, and he kissed her again, a loud, smacking kiss.

"You're such a brat sometimes, you know that?"

She snorted, and she prodded him, right in the side.

"Let's go in the water," she said again. "Please?"

"I guess you've been baked enough," said Taako. "Need to shock you a bit."

"Oh my god, Taako, I'm not just a tomato that you were boiling," said Lup, and she was grinning as she stood up.

Taako's eyes trailed over her body; her long legs, her soft belly, the curve of her breasts, the familiar angles of her face, the crazy wave of her hair over her shoulders.

"You're gonna turn into one, if you keep lying in the sun like that," said Taako.

"I'll be the most fabulous tomato this side of anywhere, and you know it," said Lup, and she struck a pose.

The air was almost burning with the heat, and it was juicy with the scent of the sea.

She wanted to take the sun into her mouth, and she wanted to leap, from the joy being alive.

She took Taako's hand in her own, as he shed his beach covering, and the both of them waded out into the sea, as it lapped at their thighs, cool fingers stroking along their skin.

Taako's face opened, like someone drawing the curtains of a room, and then they were both hit in the belly by a particularly big wave, and... well....

Look.

Even elves - the most glamorous, graceful, beautiful people of all the worlds can look kinda dumb sometimes, okay?

They were both knocked back on their asses, and then they were both sitting in the water and laughing - laughing so hard that it difficult to breathe, because... how could they not?

The sunlight sparkled off of the water, and the water was as cold as a bank overdraft. 

The combination was enough to make Lup's skin tingle.

"I used to hate the beach," Taako said, unexpectedly.

"Hm?"

Lup looked over at him, trying to tuck a hunk of wet hair behind one ear.

"The beach," he said. "When... you know, when I didn't remember you, I hated it."

"Why?"

"I dunno," said Taako. "Maybe my mind fighting itself or something. The voidfish magic only doing so much."

"Maybe you're just so much of a stubborn idiot that even the voidfish can't exactly fix that."

"Hmm?"

"You know what I mean," said Lup.

"Not really," said Taako, and he frowned. "Lulu, you're already going all red."

"I'll be fine," she assured him.

He snorted.

"If you say so," he said, and then he splashed her.

Lup made an outraged noise, and splashed him back.

* * *

It escalated, because of course it did.

When you've got two mages with all the free space to wreak as much havoc as their magely hearts desire... well....

By the end of it, there might have been a few smoking craters in the beach.

But only a few!

* * *

Lup fell asleep on the blanket, under the umbrella with Taako.

Her head was on his chest, and he stroked her hair gently, running his fingers through it.

“We’re gonna have to give you a proper conditioning, when we get back to the house,” he said. “Your hair is gonna be wrecked.”

“Just use… mm… some magic,” she said, her eyes shut.

The sunlight shone through their umbrella, and the brightness of it dashed against the darkness behind her closed eyes.

“Your hair gets weird when we use magic on it, remember?”

Taako’s tone was teasing. “That one time that it turned blue, remember?”

“That was your fault, not mine,” said Lup, and she wrapped her arms around his middle, pulling him closer, as his hands stroked across her hair, down her back.

His body was a little cooler than hers - not by much, but enough that she could notice.

She listened to the slow, steady beat of his heart - she’d missed that.

That had been one of the things she’d missed the most, when she had been trapped in the umbrella.

Being able to hear his heart, to smell his skin.

To know that he was alive, and not only was he alive, but he was alive _with her_.

She was lulled to sleep by his breathing, as he shifted positions, to read his book, and he kept stroking her hair.

* * *

Lup was woken up, some time later, by Taako shaking her shoulder.

“It’s getting dark,” he told her.

Lup sat up, and she rubbed her eyes.

“Mmm?”

“Look,” he said, and he pointed.

It was indeed getting dark - the sun was beginning to set.

“We should head back….”

“Yeah.” 

She stood up, and she stretched, relishing the burn of her muscles.

… not so much relishing the tightness of her skin.

Oh boy.

“You are so sunburnt, holy fuck,” said Taako, and he looked amused.

“So cast a healing spell on me,” said Lup.

“When we get back to the cabin,” said Taako, standing up as well.

The light caught his face, casting shadows weirdly, and for a moment, he wasn’t her brother. 

For a moment, he was a stranger to her.

And then he caught her eye, and his whole face lit up, and she smiled at him, because it was still Taako.

It was still… alien to think, that he’d been doing other things for twelve years.

For twelve years, she hadn’t seen him, she hadn’t… known him.

It wasn’t as if he was a new person, exactly - she knew his likes, his dislikes, his scars, his sensitive spots.

Except he’d gained new ones.

New everything, while she was gone.

And she was slowly picking up on stuff.

Slowly.

Sometimes, it was this great, impassable gap that she could never bridge.

But… now wasn’t that time.

“Come on,” she said, as he grabbed the umbrella, and she wrapped her towel around her waist.

* * *

They trekked through the woods, slowly, and then Taako grabbed her by the wrist, and pulled her into a clearing.

She was about to ask him why he was doing it when she saw.

There were flowers, and they were burning.

They were burning, but they weren’t being consumed.

It took her a moment to realize what she was seeing - some kind of magic, glowing and flickering in the setting sun, catching the reds, the oranges, the yellows.

There were even hints of blue.

Taako’s hand slid into hers, and the two of them watched, entranced, as the colors shifted, getting dimmer, darker, as the sky itself got darker,until, one by one, they went out.

The flowers themselves were still there - Lup could see in the dark, after all, and she could see the shape of them.

But they were no longer filled with the glow - they were just flowers again.

Lup’s eyes were filling with tears, and she glanced over at Taako, to see what his face was doing.

He was crying as well, silently, and he was holding on to her hand so tightly that it hurt.

She was missing… something.

She was missing something, and she didn’t know what it was, except that it was tearing him up inside, and she didn’t know how to help him with it, and that was killing her.

She pulled him closer to her, and she kissed him, a gentle peck on the mouth. 

“That fish you caught should still be good,” Taako said quietly, his mouth moving against hers. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah - that cold spell I cast on it will still be holding.”

“That’s good.”

“We should….”

“Yeah,” said Lup, and she squeezed his fingers, as the two of them passed through the woods, which were already filling with the sounds of nighttime insects.

* * *

There was fish at the cabin.

There was fish, there was wine, and there were macarons, and there were potatoes.

They moved around each other in the kitchen, making their dinner, chatting, teasing each other.

Taako didn’t talk about his sudden burst of emotion, with the burning flowers, and Lup didn’t ask after it, because sometimes her brother needed to just figure himself out, and he didn’t do any better with her pushing him.

He did cast the healing spell on her, which did help, somewhat.

Unfortunately, even with magic, the body needs time to sort things out.

Taako laughed at her tan lines, because of course he did.

They ate their dinner out on the porch of the cabin, staring up at the sky, and making each other laugh.

The moon was small, a crescent, and they both looked at it.

“It’s still weird to think that we were on the moon for so long,” said Taako, his tone thoughtful. “Like, obviously not the actual moon.”

“Right,” said Lup.

“Do you remember when we were little, and we’d talk about the moon?”

“It looked like a cookie,” said Lup, her tone dreamy.

“Not a very good cookie, if it’s silver,” said Lup, making a face. “You ever tasted silver?”

“Yeah,” said Taako, and he grinned. “Remember that place, when we were supposed to be catering, and we stole half the silver, and then we kept those two spoons?”

“Yeah, and we were eating with silver spoons before we decided that they just tasted horrible,” said Lup, and she grinned.

Taako’s face went sad all over again.

“I… it’s funny,’ he said quietly. “I’ve got… I’ve got two sets of memories in my head, almost. Because I remember you, but I also… I remember what I remembered when I didn’t remember you.”

“Oh,” said Lup, because how else was she supposed to respond ot that?

How _did_ you respond to that?

“It’s weird, huh?”

Taako looked a bit amused. “Fucked up as shit.”

“Super fucked up,” she agreed. 

“But fuck it,” said Taako, and he leaned back into his seat, tilting it back, until the front legs left the deck. “I’m going to set my teeth into the silver of the moon.”

“That’s an unusually poetic turn of phrase for you,” said Lup, raising an eyebrow.

“I can be poetic sometimes,” said Taako. “As I’ve said before, it’s not all “abraca-fuck-you.””

Lup snorted.

“That was fun,” she said, vaguely nostalgic. “It was… it was when you found me again.”

“Right,” said Taako. “Although you hadn’t... that is, I didn’t know yet.”

And his face was doing… something again.

For fuck sake.

She wanted to shake him, to get him to tell her what was bothering him, to find out what it was that was going on in his head.

She used to be able to read his face, when they were kids, when they’d first joined the IPRE, when they had died and come back and died and come back, again and again and again.

But now… now he had a different face - he’d lived more than she had.

Wasn’t that a crazy concept?

Lup and Taako, who had shared a womb and a life, had now outpaced each other.

Maybe that was what was making Taako so mopey.

He was sad about living more than her, about experiencing more than she had.

But it wasn’t like they could do much about it.

It wasn’t like she was _mad_ at him about it or something.

She squeezed his fingers, and she sighed.

“What do you think made those flowers burn like that?”

“I have no fuckin’ idea,” said Taako, his tone cheerful. “They were pretty though, weren’t they?”

“They really were,” said Lup. “It’s probably some kind of weird magic.”

“Imagine the kind of tea you could make with that,” said Taako, and his voice was going a little dreamy.

Lup snorted - he always got slightly dreamy, when considering culinary mysteries.

In a world where there wasn’t any magic, would Taako have been a master chef?

He was kind of a master chef already, but… hmm.

“You’re looking thoughtful,” Taako said, and his voice was quiet.

“I can be thoughtful sometimes,” Lup said. 

“I wasn’t saying you couldn’t be.”

“Well, no,” said Lup. “But still. It was implied, with your tone.”

“I’ll do a better job of regulating my tone in the future,” Taako said, his tone utterly sincere.

“No you won’t,” said Lup.

“Well, no,” said Taako, and he was grinning again, “but at least it looks nice when I say I’ll do it.”

“Since when do you care about looking nice?”

“I’m mellowing out in my old age,” said Taako, and he tilted his head back, still looking at the moon.

The silvery light seemed to draw the eye to the loveliness of his profile, and his eyelashes cast shadows across his cheeks.

He looked like an enigma - he was a bit of a mystery in his flesh to her, so different, but so similar at the same time. 

So full of things that she should have known, but didn’t, after all that time.

She sighed, and she kissed the corner of his mouth, and then the two of them were making their way back into the cabin. 

* * *

Lup was woken up by Taako.

More accurately, she was woken up by Taako breathing in her ear.

She made a surprised noise, shifting. 

They’d fallen asleep on opposite sides of the bed, their legs touching, and now he was.. .he was pretty much on top of her, his hand resting on her lower belly, right under the waistband of her pajama pants. 

“Lulu,” Taako mumbled, and his eyes were closed.

She could just make out the sleeping curves of his body, as he squirmed, dashing himself against the darkness. 

He was grinding his hips against her hip, and his cock was hard under his nightshirt, smearing wetly against her. 

He’d soaked through his pajama pants, and he was whimpering, his tears wet against her skin.

“I’m sorry,” Taako said, and he was… he was talking in his sleep.

His hand was sliding down into her pajama pants, and then he was pausing, as he rested right over her vulva. 

“Shhh,” Lup said, and she rolled onto her side, so that they were forehead to forehead.

She took his face in her hands, and she kissed him, as her eyelashes met his, and his tears rubbed across her cheeks. 

He blinked awake, and he looked at her, shocked and confused, and then he seemed to… collapse.

“I forgot you, Lulu,” Taako said quietly. “I full on… forgot you.”

“You didn’t do it on purpose,” said Lup. “And it’s not like I was… findable, what with one thing and another.”

She kissed him, a slow, sweet slide, lips on lips, her tongue in his mouth, sucking on his tongue gently, and then he was on top of her, and he was… he was still crying.

“God, Lulu, i was… I know I… I make a lot of jokes about it, but… fuck.”

She kissed him, to comfort him, to comfort herself.

She’d missed him - she’d missed him so much - she’d missed his body, his mind, his… self.

She was herself again - she was a _person_ again, not just a litch trapped inside of an umbrella, not just some memory, stolen by the voidfish.

And he was alive too, and he had scars she didn’t know the stories behind, he had memories he hadn’t shared with her, and that was terrifying, but at the same time… he was alive.

He was alive, and he was here, and she was here, and she was alive.

This was all strange and unknowable, but at the same time… it was happening.

It was the two of them, the way it had been, all the way back when, and it wasn’t like that anymore - it wasn’t just the two of them against the world anymore.

But at this moment, it was the two of them, in the dark, together.

And she was kissing him, and he was kissing her, and maybe he was crying, and maybe she was, but none of that mattered.

He was… more or less climbing on top of her now, and they were belly to belly, forehead to forehead.

He was breathing her breath, and she was breathing his breath, and they were so close together that they were shaking, and it was… it was something.

It was hot, it was… almost humid, with the heat of their bodies pressed together like this, and he was grinding his hips forward, his cock hard and desperate.

“I forgot about you, and I forgot about you so hard that I didn’t… I didn’t even know I had to grieve you, because I didn’t know I needed you. It’s like someone took away my heart and replaced it, and not only was I… not only was I functioning without a heart, I didn’t _realize_ I didn’t have a heart.”

“I’m sorry,” Lup said, and she took his face in her hands, stroking his cheeks with her thumbs, and they were kissing again, an old, familiar kiss.

They’d been kissing like this since puberty - bodies tangled together, hearts beating, separated only by skin and muscle and bone.

It was… it wasn’t right, in the way some things were viewed as “right,” but fuck that, because they weren’t even from this world. 

She was sweating, and he was sweating - his braid was over her shoulder now, dangling, and she grabbed it, twisted it around her hand, as he arched into her.

He moaned, a hard, low sound, and his hips juddered forward.

“You’re… so… warm,” he said.

“Well, yeah,” she said. “I’m not dead.”

“I mean,” said Taako, “technically….”

“Oh my god,” Lup said, and she was wriggling, trying to get her pajama pants down and off. 

“I remember… you were my first,” Taako said, unexpectedly, and then he was getting out from between her legs, which was… unexpected, to say the least.

“Hmm?”

She looked at him, confused.

“You’re gonna laugh at this,” he said, “but I thought my first time was with… what’s that dude’s name. The guy, when we were with that traveling circus?”

“Fucked if I remember,” said Lup, her tone cheerful. “You were always more into him than I was.”

“He was a hot slab of beef,” said Taako, his tone momentarily dreamy. “But, uh… yeah. I’d forgotten I’d ever… I’d ever done anything with you.”

He pulled her pajama pants up and off, and then he was… lying on his belly, between her legs.

“Well, I mean, voidfish,” said Lup, and she rested her hands on top of his head, getting comfy.

He was… he was still pretty good at giving head. 

“I remember once, when… during, you know, those twelve years, I was having this recollection that i knew what pussy tastes like, ‘cause… you know.”

He ran a thumb along her slit, and she shuddered, her heels digging into the mattress.

She was already wet, and his thumb was on her clit now, rotating gently. 

“Except I couldn’t actually remember _how_ I knew it.”

“So you were lying awake late at night, wondering about this pussy you tasted that you didn’t remember? Some ghost pussy that just landed on your face one day, out of the blue?”

“It wasn’t like I was lying awake at night,” Taako said, rolling his eyes. “But sometimes I’d… y’know, I’d think about the fact that I knew what that tasted like, and it’d be weird.”

“Huh,” said Lup.

“I missed it.”

“What, really?”

Taako planted a sloppy, loud kiss on her vulva, right above her slit, and Lup made an inelegant noise, squirming.

She was ticklish there, because of course she was.

And then Taako was licking her.

It was… well, it was his technique.

It was different from anyone else she’d been with, and she… well, she’d missed it.

She’d missed all of him, and she’d missed all of _this_ \- of having a body, of being a physical being in the world, and now here she was… and his tongue was entering her the way she had entered the sea, creeping and sweet, and his nose was on her clit, and she was grinding her hips forward, her head tilted back against the pillow.

She rolled her hips forward, so that she was grinding into his face, her thighs on his ears, and her heels were digging into his back, as she rolled her hips and moaned.

She held on to his braid, running the tip of it against her fingers, and then she was letting go of it, to pull and pinch at her own nipples, and he was… oh god, he was… oh… it was Taako, he was… he was licking her, sucking, nipping, and then his fingers were sliding into her, and she was clenching around him, and he was… oh….

Lup came on Taako’s face.

She came inelegantly - even elves have graceless, ugly orgasms - but she came, and then he was climbing up her body, and he had pushed his nightshirt up and off - he was naked now, and he was pressing closer to her, his forehead against hers, and his breath….

“You smell like pussy,” she told him.

“I mean,” said Taako, “if I smelled like steak tartare, I’d be worried.”

Lup giggled - she couldn’t help it - and she was still giggling, as the wet, blunt head of Taako’s cock slid inside of her, a long, smooth stretch.

Oh, that was… that was good. 

She spread her thighs wider, and she was still laughing, as he hilted himself. 

He flexed his cock inside of her, and he ground his hips, so that his pubic bone was against her clit.

She shuddered, and she rolled her hips up towards him, and he was so warm, so solid, this was real, this was something she hadn’t expected to ever feel again, after she’d been trapped in that umbrella, but here he was, and he was… oh, god, he was her heart, and she was his heart, and he was crying, as she hooked her heels around his waist, digging into his calves, and she was humping up into him, she was… oh… fuck….

“God,” Taako groaned. “Lu, fuck….”

She closed her eyes, pressing her forehead against his, and she kissed him, and maybe he was sweating, and maybe he was crying, but his hair was coming out of the braid, to patter around her face.

“I’m sorry I forgot you,” Taako said, “I’m sorry I lived… I’m sorry I lived without you, I’m sorry you were dead, it was my fault, it was all my fault, it was my… it was….”

“Shut up,” Lup said, not unkindly, and then she hooked her legs around him, and they rolled over, so that he was on his back, looking up at her, 

He liked her best like that - over him, taking charge, running ahead.

That was how they worked. 

She looked down at him, and she ran her hands across her own breasts, shucking off her pajama shirt, and now she was naked as she rode his cock, rolling her hips, squeezing around him, and she was rubbing her clit, she was wet enough that it was puddling down his shaft, onto his groin, and it was… it was all so wet, so sticky, so alive.

He had his hands on her hips, and then he was covering her hand, rubbing her clit as well, and she was bucking and squeezing him, her knees digging into his sides.

“Oh, god,” Lup said, and she hunched her hips, tilting her head back, her eyes squeezed shut.

The air was alive around them, like that moment before lightning strikes, and the two of them gazed into each other’s eyes.

He was her heart, and she was his heart.

And then he did… something, with is thumb, with his hips, and she was cumming around him, a burst of twitching and throbbing, and she was sobbing, her hands on his chest now, as he helped her ride the orgasm out, and then he was cumming inside of her, okay, that was… that was kind of cheesy.

Like something out of a certain kind of romance novel.

But she was kissing him, as he came inside of her, as his dripped out of her, and that was kind of… well, gross, but… oh, it was good.

She held on to him, lying on top of him, and he nuzzled into her ear.

“I’m sorry,” he said again.

“I forgive you,” she said, “although I don’t need to. It’s not like you did any of that shit, you know, _at_ me.”

“But still….”

“No but still.”

She kissed him.

“... okay,” said Taako. “But, you know, you’ve got be being all regretful and shit. I feel like you should milk this opportunity while you have it.”

“I’d rather milk your dick again,” Lup said, and Taako burst out laughing - ugly laughing, hard enough that Lup was jostled off of him, to land in a sloppy heap on the bed next to him.

“I can’t believe you,” she grumbled. 

“Can’t believe _me_? You’re the one who made the horrible joke!”

“Yeah, building off of what you said,” she said.

Taako snorted.

Lup blew a raspberry at him.

He blew one back. 

She snuggled up to him, her head under his chin - she probably should have gotten up to pee, but… fuck it.

She was comfortable.

She’d deal with that later.

* * *

Lup woke up in the morning, her head a little stuffy, to find a note from Taako. 

He was at the beach, doing… something.

She sat up, still naked, rubbing her eyes, and then she saw the flickering.

The burning flowers were in a vase on their small table, and he had put the crushed petals in another small pot, steeping them.

Lup smiled, and she got out of bed to sniff them - they smelled spicy, almost sharp.

He had changed, without her, but… in the end, he was still Taako.

**Author's Note:**

> Please keep in mind that I am a creature mainly motivated by spite - if you leave nasty comments, it will probably goad me to write more, and I will delete them, so nobody else will actually get to see them. Nice comments, however, are always appreciated!


End file.
